Ranya Habash

Cataract Surgeon, Voluntary Assistant Professor, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Visionary Innovation Mentor, Stanford University, Miami, Florida, USA

Is there a particular tool, technological advance, or instrument you would not have been able to live without over the past 10 years? 

The iPhone. Whether using smartphone-based digital health tools for patient care, doing video calls through Doximity, taking ophthalmic photos, or watching surgical videos, smartphones have revolutionized medicine, and will continue to do so. With all the digital health tools using native hardware and software on any device, there is no better gateway for democratizing healthcare.  

Where do you predict ophthalmology/your subspecialty will be 10 years from now?

Digital health will enable consumer healthcare options that our patients never had before. We will see patients taking charge of their own care through self-sovereign identity, IoT tools, remote patient monitoring, and other digital solutions. We will also see more collaboration between academic institutions, industry, and big tech. All of this will result in a major transformation in healthcare delivery.   

What is an interesting or little-known fact about you?

I grew up in rural West Virginia, the daughter of immigrant parents. Our town had no restaurants, no movie theater, no malls – just a gas station. It was a simple, happy upbringing, but the lack of access to healthcare in this area motivated me to solve big problems in medicine. This is why I started my first company, HipaaChat, to offer people better access to care through telemedicine. And it did just that...

Who is someone in ophthalmology/your subspecialty that you feel has been particularly influential over the past 10 years?

Elon Musk. OK – so he’s not exactly in our field but he's transformed some of the most consequential industries on Earth: banking, cars, energy, rockets, and brain-computer interface technology. I hope to transform the eye care industry for the benefit of our patients, colleagues, and industry partners in the same way.